Chapter 179: If You’re Grateful, Later

The martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate quickly noticed that something was falling from the sky.

“Something’s falling from above!”

“Prepare for poison!”

Even so, they were still brimming with confidence.

The strategy they had spent years preparing against the Giant Tree Ghost was working exactly as intended, and the key to the operation, the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader, was charging straight toward its heart to kill it.

THOOM! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Even when huge fruit-like things dropped from the sky and embedded themselves in the ground, they remained on guard, but no one was startled or frightened.

“......Cocoons?”

“There’s some kind of stench.......”

Then one of the mid-ranking martial artists who had participated in the Giant Tree Ghost hunt ten years ago shouted.

“Larvae that spit poisonous thread are going to burst out of those! Prepare the poison-warding beads and the special chemicals!”

At his shout, the martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate moved in perfect order once more.

Through their past experience, they had prepared plenty of poison-warding beads, as well as chemicals capable of neutralizing the thread the larvae spat out. There would be no problem.

But a moment later, what tore through the cocoons and burst out were not the larvae they had expected.

Grrrrk.......

Guuuuurk......

The moment they met the eyes of the things walking out on two feet, the martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate froze where they stood.

They were half-rotted corpses. Every last one of them was missing some part of an arm or leg, and some had had their entire lower bodies torn away and devoured. Rotten tree trunks had replaced the missing parts of their bodies.

“Don’t tell me those are.......”

“Th-that can’t be true, right?”

The martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate, who had been ready to rush in with spirit and cut down whatever stood before them, stopped dead, their faces ashen.

Because the enemies approaching them were wearing the same training clothes as they were.

When some of the martial artists recognized familiar faces among them, their eyes filled with despair and terror.

“Uncle......?”

“Master.......”

“Senior brother—!”

They were the martial artists who, ten years ago, had left with the previous Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader to seal the Great Anomaly and sacrificed themselves.

The Giant Tree Ghost had defiled their corpses and turned them into puppets under its control.

Their eyes were all dead, but they were saying something in the voices they had possessed in life.

Grrrrrrk. Help...... me......

Huuuuuuh. I...... I......

The martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate, who had feared nothing, began backing away step by step.

The monsters baring their teeth and approaching them were all someone’s uncle, sworn brother, fellow disciple, or master.

At that dreadful sight, Kim Muhyuk also let out a sigh and muttered.

[We weren’t the only ones who studied how to deal with the Giant Tree Ghost. That thing spent ten years preparing to fight us, too.......]

The seal had been unstable from the start.

As it waited for the day its enemies would come again, the Great Anomaly had prepared the strongest hand it could play.

Grrrrrrrr......!

Graaaaaaaaah—!

The puppets wearing the tattered training clothes of Transcendent Extremity Gate charged like wild beasts toward their former sworn brothers, disciples, and juniors.

“Senior brother! Snap out of it!”

“N-no way. This isn’t right.......”

Because the flustered Transcendent Extremity Gate disciples backed away step by step, their formation broke for the first time.

The swords that had never stopped in the face of even the strongest enemy, and the courage that did not fear death, were useless before this.

“Pull yourselves together! They are nothing but rotting corpses! This is only an evil trick performed by an anomaly!”

Dr. Man, who was maintaining the barrier from the rear, unleashed a lion’s roar. When he swept one hand, the strange and wondrous characters he had created with Pilcheon Style flew forward and shoved the puppets back.

But even Dr. Man could not bring himself to recklessly damage the corpses of the dead, so it was difficult for him to attempt any further attack.

“How could it do something so hideous.......”

If not for the sacrifice of the martial artists who had become those puppets, they would never have been able to seal the Giant Tree Ghost even incompletely ten years ago.

For Dr. Man, who had been there for that battle, hesitation could not help but enter his hands.

Grrrrk—!

While the martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate and Dr. Man hesitated, the Giant Tree Ghost rapidly regenerated its broken and damaged branches.

BOOM! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The cunning Great Anomaly did not miss the opportunity presented by its enemies’ confusion. Its regenerated branches swung with an even more ferocious momentum than before.

“Pull yourselves together! They’re already dead! If all of you die too, what will their sacrifice have meant?”

Moon Seokju, vice sect leader of Transcendent Extremity Gate, shouted as he tried to regain control of the situation, but even he clenched his teeth when he saw the puppet charging toward him.

“Elder.......”

Brother Seungil, Seokju...... Graaaaaaah!

The elder of Transcendent Extremity Gate who had remained in the spell barrier with his father, Moon Seungil, the previous sect leader, and sacrificed himself.

Seeing the man he had followed like an uncle now reduced to the Giant Tree Ghost’s puppet and charging at him, Moon Seokju could not bring himself to cut him down and had no choice but to retreat.

With the appearance of the puppets, the morale of Transcendent Extremity Gate’s disciples hit rock bottom, and their injuries and fatigue began accumulating rapidly.

As the humans’ fierce assault weakened, the Giant Tree Ghost gained momentum and rampaged even more violently. Branches and roots whipped out in every direction, and it launched attacks fierce enough to threaten even the spell formation in the rear.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

“......I will block its attacks, so all of you focus on maintaining the spell formation!”

Dr. Man was barely holding them off by unfolding Pilcheon Style, but if Transcendent Extremity Gate could not perform its role, then eventually even the spellcasters would be in danger.

[As you can see, a major variable has occurred on the battlefield.]

Kim Muhyuk, who had been observing the battlefield with cold eyes, judged that now was the time for Blue Wolves to step in.

After all, he had accepted the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader’s commission in preparation for variables like this.

I hoped the hunt would end without anything happening, but.......

Since it had happened after all, it was time to earn the generous commission fee they had received.

However, Kim Muhyuk still did not intend to step in personally.

[Kim Bokja. Shin Kangheon. Can the two of you handle those? As respectfully as possible, if you can.......]

At Kim Muhyuk’s call, the two answered in unusually serious voices.

[Yeah. I know what you mean.]

[I’ll send them off with as much respect as I can.]

As the two stepped forward together, Apricot, who had been perched on Shin Kangheon’s shoulder, moved to Kim Bokja’s shoulder and roared.

Pyaaaak—!

Although Apricot was also a Great Anomaly, it felt no kinship whatsoever toward the Giant Tree Ghost—only displeasure.

The baby Golden Winged Bird regarded humans as friends.

That was why it could not understand the Giant Tree Ghost tormenting humans in such a wicked way, and it was a little angry.

Flap-flap-flap!

As Apricot puffed up its feathers, the red jewel necklace around its neck began shining more clearly. It was a spellcraft tool Kim Bokja had made.

Woooooong!

The necklace’s energy resonated with Shin Kangheon’s saber.

A new red jewel that had not been there before was embedded near the handle of the saber Shin Kangheon held. It was the same kind as Apricot’s necklace.

[That thing you asked me for last time. I finished it, so try it out.]

Kim Bokja spoke to Shin Kangheon as she unfolded Pilcheon Style. Centered on her body, a whirlwind surged upward and formed all kinds of shapes.

SHHK-SHHK-SHHHK—!

At the same time, a scroll shot out of the scroll case Dr. Man had given her and unfurled, wrapping around her as if to protect her.

[Let every one of them pass on peacefully.]

When Kim Bokja gave his back a thung and pushed him forward, the power of her spellcraft was transmitted to him, and Shin Kangheon shot out with explosive speed.

FWOOOOSH!

Flames blazed along the ground in the path Shin Kangheon raced through.

[Uraaaaaaah!]

Shin Kangheon, who had raised the Blazing-Yang Art to full power in an instant, let out a battle cry.

Pyaaaaak!

At the same time, the Golden Winged Bird’s flame flowed out of Apricot and transmitted through the necklace, strengthening the fire energy of the Blazing-Yang Art.

The moment the flames of a human and an anomaly merged as one through the spellcraft tool Kim Bokja had made—

FWOOOOSH!

Flames spread from the wings of fire that grew from Shin Kangheon’s back and caught across his entire body.

In an instant, Shin Kangheon, now covered in flames, charged at the nearest puppet.

[Great Anomaly or whatever the hell you are, there are lines you’re not supposed to cross.......]

The saber engulfed in flames grew long. When the flames reached several meters in an instant and threatened it, the puppet targeting a Transcendent Extremity Gate disciple turned toward Shin Kangheon in surprise.

Graaaaaaaah—!

If it had been the usual Shin Kangheon, he would have shouted a cool technique name in that moment or shown off his saber art to the fullest as he cut the enemy down.

But the current Shin Kangheon silently glared at the puppet charging toward him.

At the same time as he burned hot with rage at the vile act the Giant Tree Ghost had committed, the eyes beneath his mask blazed coldly instead.

[And you crossed that line a long damn time ago, you rotten tree bastard!]

After glaring once at the Giant Tree Ghost visible in the distance behind it, Shin Kangheon swung his saber at the puppet.

“W-wait! Our senior brother.......”

The martial artist from Transcendent Extremity Gate who had chased after the puppet from behind shouted, as if he wanted to say something, but Shin Kangheon’s saber had already passed through the target.

FWOOOOSH!

All the martial artists of Transcendent Extremity Gate watching thought the puppet covered in flames would turn to ash.

That is what has to be done, but.......

Still, I hoped we could at least recover the body......!

Just as gratitude for him doing what they could not and resentment toward him rose at the same time—

FWOOOOSH.......

The flames clinging to the puppet’s body quickly scattered, and every martial artist of Transcendent Extremity Gate was shocked by the sight revealed again.

“Se-senior brother?”

Every part made of rotten branches had been burned away and disappeared, but the intact portions of the corpse remained exactly as they were.

It was the result of terrifyingly delicate fire-energy control.

And that was not all.

—Completely seal the breathing holes through which an anomaly absorbs qi. Then push your internal energy into that place.

Over the previous night, Shin Kangheon had, in the end, made the technique for cutting an anomaly that Sunwoo Jeha had taught him his own.

With his flames, he cut off the Giant Tree Ghost’s energy controlling the puppet, then pushed the Blazing-Yang Art into that place and cut it down in one stroke.

Thud.

Shin Kangheon laid the corpse, now freed from the Great Anomaly’s bonds, neatly on the ground and said,

[......May you pass on peacefully.]

The anomaly energy that had been lodged in the corpse vanished as if washed away, and the martial artist’s painfully distorted expression looked far more peaceful.

“Thank you. For our senior brother.......”

A martial artist who seemed to have shared a master-disciple relationship with the corpse lying on the ground approached. Tears had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

Shin Kangheon shrugged once as if it was no big deal.

[If you’re grateful, buy me a meal sometime later. Right now, hurry up and get your head straight.]

“......Yes. I will!”

The martial artist clenched his teeth, nodded with a resolute expression, and recovered the body.

Kyaaaaaaak!

At the furious wail of the ghost, Shin Kangheon raised his head again and glared at the Giant Tree Ghost. He felt its gaze turn toward him.

Shin Kangheon did not avoid that gaze and glared straight back.

[You goddamn anomaly bastard. You stay right there.]

FWOOOOSH!

Shin Kangheon, engulfed in flames once more, charged out to deal with the other puppets.

[Because after I let every one of these people pass on, I’m turning you into charcoal too!]

The puppets rushed at him in a swarm, and the Giant Tree Ghost’s branches whipped around like lashes, but Shin Kangheon’s flames only grew fiercer.

While the flame demon that had swallowed the fire of a Great Anomaly swept across the battlefield and threw it into chaos—

The other members of Blue Wolves began to move in earnest as well.